There was a post you wrote about Harry and Hermione's ruthlessness and how Ron is more normal compared to them (unfortunately I can't find it or else I would link it). But I feel like there have been several situations where Ron is kinda... merciless? He's more likely to wish ill for people he doesn't like and Hermione is generally horrified by such remarks. So, at times, I see Hermione as the moral compass with Harry and Ron being more ruthless. But then there is truth to that Rita scene analysis. So, I can see him being the moral compass of the trio as well. Who do you think is the real moral compass of the trio then?
So, I don't think moral is exactly the right word. Moral and ruthless aren't opposites, not always. So, it's a little more complicated than that. What I usually say is that Ron is the most hinged in the trio, and Harry and Hermione are more unhinged, which, isn't just about ruthlessness/marcy.
(Past posts about this: Harry can be scary, Harry is willing to kill, Hermione's ruthlessness, Ron's mean streak)
Harry — is very empathetic and forgiving on a personal level when he understands someone but couldn't give less of a shit about the larger systematic issues or people on his shit list. He is empathetic and would go out of his way to save people he considers innocent:
“We were hundreds of feet up! Stan’s not himself and if I stunned him and he’d fallen, he’d have died the same as if I’d used Avada Kedavra!!...”
But if someone deserves it, if he sees someone as undeserving of mercy, there is none:
well, unless you count Quirrell, and he got what he deserved seeing as he was working with Voldemort.
Harry had pinned Mundungus against the wall of the pub by the throat. Holding him fast with one hand, he pulled out his wand. “Harry!” squealed Hermione.
[...]
“I — no — what — ?” spluttered Mundungus, who was slowly turning purple.
Wriggling around he cried, “Stupefy!” and a red bolt of light shot from his own wand, cleaving a gap between the four pursuing Death Eaters as they scattered to avoid it.
(DH, Ch4) - He cast Supify at a DE in the Battle of the 7 Potters, knowing it's like casting an AK. He also cast Confringo and other spells that would kill them.
“Hasn’t changed much, has he?” Harry muttered to Ginny, who
grinned.
[...]
Lockhart’s memory so badly that he had landed here in the first place, though, as Lockhart had been attempting to permanently wipe Harry and Ron’s memories at the time, Harry’s sympathy was limited.
As Amycus spun around, Harry shouted, “Crucio!”
The Death Eater was lifted off his feet. He writhed through the air like a drowning man, thrashing and howling in pain, and then, with a crunch and a shattering of glass, he smashed into the front of a bookcase and crumpled, insensible, to the floor.
“I see what Bellatrix meant,” said Harry, the blood thundering through his brain, “you need to really mean it.”
What Bellatrix said, as a refresher: “You need to mean them, Potter! You need to really want to cause pain — to enjoy it — righteous anger won’t hurt me for long...”
Harry's sense of justice is based on his loyalty and understanding of people. His loved ones or people he understands deserve forgiveness even if they did awful things, others though? Others who do evil deserve everything coming to them, and Harry would gladly be the one to serve justice if he could and feel satisfied at their misfortune.
Ron — can be mean. He talks a lot about violence and enjoying Malfoy being in pain (when it is easily reversible). He complains about having to save Draco and threatens to punch/curse people more than Harry and Hermione:
Malfoy and some of the other Slytherins cheered. Hermione was dancing on tiptoes.
“Do you think he’s all right?” she squealed through her fingers.
“Who cares?” said Harry and Ron together.
(CoS, Ch11) - about Lockhart
“I’m here!” came Ron’s muffled voice from behind the rockfall. “I’m okay — this git’s not, though — he got blasted by the wand —”There was a dull thud and a loud “ow!” It sounded as though Ron had just kicked Lockhart in the shins.
“She’s an awful woman [Umbridge],” said Hermione in a small voice. “Awful. You know, I was just saying to Ron when you came in . . . we’ve got to do something about her.”
“I suggested poison,” said Ron grimly.
As Smith strode away in an annoyingly buoyant fashion, Ron glared after him. “Shall I jinx him? I can still get him from here,” he said, raising his wand and taking aim between Smith’s shoulder blades.
“Forget it,” said Harry dismally. “It’s what everyone’s going to think, isn’t it? That I’m really stup —”
He is the member of the trio to suggest violence the most often and rant angrily, but he doesn't actually go through with his threats as much as Harry and Hermione do. He can be cruel and take joy in the pain of people he dislikes/harmed people he cares for, when he doesn't see it or when it's easily reversible. He is rarely the one actually doing the harming, and when he does, it is way less extreme than the type of things Harry and Hermione pull.
He is very aware of the situation and entertains violence and even killing when he thinks the situation calls for it:
“What are we going to do with them?” Ron whispered to Harry through the dark; then, even more quietly, “Kill them? They’d kill us. They had a good go just now.”
“You’re the boss,” said Ron, sounding profoundly relieved. “But I’ve never down a Memory Charm.”
Even when it's Lockhart, Ron feels guilty about his state:
“Er — how are you, Professor?” said Ron, sounding slightly guilty.
His violence is reactionary to protect his friends, and he is the member of the trio that kills/curses the fewest people. He can do it, and would be loud about people deserving it, but he doesn't like people being hurt, even when he doesn't like them, even when he says he's fine with it, he doesn't like seeing it, in contrast with Harry, here, who is unphased by the thought of killing Death Eaters and chooses not to for cold, practical reasons not out of any sense of morality or aprehention about killing:
Harry shook his head.
“We just need to wipe their memories,” said Harry. “It’s better like that, it’ll throw them off the scent. If we killed them it’d be obvious we were here.”
Hermione — is a weird case, because she's a hypocrite. She is horrified at the unforgivable curses, she is terrified at the thought of killing anyone:
“Kill them? They’d kill us. They had a good go just now.”
Hermione shuddered and took a step backward.
She's empathetic to house elves and anyone in a position she considers weaker and in need of help. She calls out Harry and Ron a lot about taking joy in someone's pain or laughing at others' misfortune (even when Draco was turned into a ferret, for example).
1. She keeps a woman in a jar and is proud and overjoyed by it:
“No, you see . . . Rita Skeeter” — Hermione’s voice trembled with quiet triumph — “is an unregistered Animagus. She can turn —”
Hermione pulled a small sealed glass jar out of her bag.
“— into a beetle.”
“You’re kidding,” said Ron. “You haven’t . . . she’s not . . .”
“Oh yes she is,” said Hermione happily, brandishing the jar at
them.
Inside were a few twigs and leaves and one large, fat beetle.
“That’s never — you’re kidding —” Ron whispered, lifting the jar to his eyes.
[...]
Harry looked and saw that she was quite right. He also remembered something.
“There was a beetle on the statue the night we heard Hagrid telling Madame Maxime about his mum!”
(GoF, Ch37) - Hermione is elated, Harry doesn't care, and Ron is horrified.
2. She hides an incurable curse in the D.A. partchment and tells no one about it:
and Marietta gave a wail and pulled the neck of her robes right up to her eyes, but not before the whole room had seen that her face was horribly disfigured by a series of close-set purple pustules that had spread across her nose and cheeks to form the word “SNEAK.”
Both she and Harry feel justified in what happened to Marietta:
“Ron’s dad works for the Ministry too!” Harry said furiously. “And in case you hadn’t noticed, he hasn’t got ‘sneak’ written across his face —”
“That was a really horrible trick of Hermione Granger’s,” said Cho fiercely. “She should have told us she’d jinxed that list —”
“I think it was a brilliant idea,” said Harry coldly. Cho flushed, and her eyes grew brighter.
And while Ron goes on angry rants about Mariatta, and I don't think he minds she got cursed, I don't think he'd ever have done that himself. Nor is he as satisfied with it as Harry and Hermione. He is thinking that they shouldn't have let her in in the first place, not that she deserves what she got.
3. She tells Harry not to help Ron cheat because it's wrong to do:
“I want a word with you, Harry.” She took a deep breath. “You
shouldn’t have done it. You heard Slughorn, it’s illegal.”
[...]
said Hermione shrilly. “You spiked Ron’s juice with lucky potion at breakfast! Felix Felicis!”
When she did the exact same thing, knowing it was cheating:
but Harry caught Hermione’s arm and held her back.
“What?” said Hermione defensively
“If you ask me,” said Harry quietly, “McLaggen looks like he was Confunded this morning. And he was standing right in front of where you were sitting.”
Hermione blushed.
“Oh, all right then, I did it,” she whispered. “But you should have heard the way he was talking about Ron and Ginny!...
And Harry didn't even help Ron magically cheat; he didn't put the potion in, he just tricked Ron to think he did. Hermione on the other hand...
4. She set a teacher on fire with no moral qualms:
Reaching Snape, she crouched down, pulled out her wand, and whispered a few, well-chosen words. Bright blue flames shot from her wand onto the hem of Snape’s robes.
(PS, Ch11) - though, I'll give her that the fire didn't seem to burn Snape.
5. She led Umbridge to the centaurs on purpose:
“Is it very far in?” Umbridge asked, as her robe ripped on a bramble.
“Oh yes,” said Hermione. “Yes, it’s well hidden.”
Harry’s misgivings increased. Hermione was not taking the path they had followed to visit Grawp, but the one he had followed three years ago to the lair of the monster Aragog. Hermione had not been with him on that occasion; he doubted she had any idea what danger lay at the end of it.
“Er — are you sure this is the right way?” he asked her pointedly.
“Oh yes,” she said in a steely voice, crashing through the undergrowth with what he thought was a wholly unnecessary amount of noise.
[...]
“Please,” said Hermione breathlessly, “please, don’t attack us, we
don’t think like her, we aren’t Ministry of Magic employees! We only came in here because we hoped you’d drive her off for us —”
[...]
“You said you didn’t hurt the innocent!” shouted Hermione
Knowing they would hurt her.
6. Unlike Ron and Harry, she actually harms loved ones (the worst Harry and Ron would do is shout and get angry, maybe give the silent treatment; they won't attack a friend in a moment of rage):
“Oppugno!” came a shriek from the doorway.
Harry spun around to see Hermione pointing her wand at Ron, her expression wild: The little flock of birds was speeding like a hail of fat golden bullets toward Ron, who yelped and covered his face with his hands, but the birds attacked, pecking and clawing at every bit of flesh they could reach.
Hermione is fine causing a lot of harm to people as long as she feels her hands are clean. As long as it isn't dark magic, as long as they are people she considers deserving of it, as long as it's something she can keep emotional distance from. She has a certain moral line that she's terrified of passing because I think she knows she could. She clings to laws and what she knows is right and would loudly reprimand Ron and Harry for their remarks, while doing worse offenses.
Hermione, impolsivly, does some prety unhinged, ruthless shit, but still acts like these things are morally wrong to do. As long as she can justify her actions, claim it was someone else ("I didn't make the centaurs hurt Umbridge"), or say that technically it's legal because of some loophole — she can do some messed up things while still feeling morally superior.
That's why I don't see Hermione as the most moral of the trio and Ron as the most hinged one. They are all capable of violence and ruthlessness; they just have a sense of justice that works differently and have different thoughts on violence.
Harry and Hermione both have a strong sense of justice and tend to take it into their own hands to punish those they see as deserving of it (even if Hermione tells Harry not to when he does these things, she does them herself plenty). They are also more flexible in what is considered just, with Hermione working under her own hypocritical way of: "if I do it, it's fine as long as it's not dark magic, if others do it, it's bad".
Harry's flexibility comes from a place of understanding. If someone did bad things, but Harry understands them (Tom, Draco, for example), they deserve to be offered forgiveness regardless of the damage they did. Harry is the type of person who would justify any of his loved ones murdering someone, because if they do it, it's okay. And if you harm/disrespect people and aren't in Harry's "okay list", you deserve what's coming to you, even torture and death. His justice is influenced by personal attachment and sympathy.
Ron, usually reacts and calls for violence in defence of loved ones or himself, and he is the least forgiving of the trio. His sense of justice also comes from personal loyalty, but in a different way — if you harmed his friends or family once, that's it, you deserve what's coming and he'd talk about it — loudly — even if he would rather not be the one to pull the metaphorical trigger and would feel kind of guilty over you being hurt if he actually witnessed it. His violence also tends to be tamer than the other two.
Ron's violence is saying something mean, a jinx here and there, a punch maybe; he fights like a teenager. Harry strangles, tortures, and is satisfied with how broken Lockhart is; he fights like a soldier. Hermione disfigures, tortures (she kept Rita in a jar!), and takes pride in it; she doesn't like fighting, she hits before the fight. Ron is just so much tamer than the other two. They can all be ruthless, but Ron is who I consider the most balanced member of the trio (and my choice for Minister of Magic).
Basiclly: Ron has a lot of bark and not much bite (he can bite if pushed, but he isn't going to like it), Hermione has basically no bark, but a lot of bite, and Harry has both a bark and a bite (just in a different way than the other two).
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